Unlocking Creativity (and Sanity) in 3 Pages a Day
It was 2017 when I discovered the Morning Pages.
I was living in NYC. While life looked good superficially – I had a decent job, live-in boyfriend, and Rent the Runway unlimited subscription – inside, I was not exactly thriving. I felt despondent. My chief creative outlet was incorporating “I hate myself” into whatever song was playing on my Spotify.
While catching up with a brilliant (and relapse-prone) college friend, he mentioned Morning Pages helped him kick hard drugs. Fascinating, I thought. Perhaps the exercise could aid my anhedonia?
And so, I ordered The Artist’s Way, a sketchbook, and inky new rollerball. In earnest I scribbled my anxieties large and small.
Why did my boss only say “okay.” in that email ?!?!
I should really schedule that OBGYN appointment…
Would I be happier if I moved to Brooklyn?
Wouldn’t you know, Artist’s Way author Julia Cameron wasn’t kidding when she deemed it “impossible to write Morning Pages for any extended period of time without coming into contact with an unexpected inner power. The pages are a pathway to a strong and clear sense of self.”
In the ensuing months, I started discovering that long-elusive sense of purpose and peace. I ended the relationship, quit drinking, found community.
And when I re-read The Artist’s Way in 2019 in the company of said community, progress accelerated. I enrolled in a writing class and talked to strangers. The depression was lifting and joie de vivre emerging. I was starting to see why people liked New York so much. The piles of trash are so sculptural!
Fast forward 5 years… Although I am less of a purist, I still do my Morning/Afternoon Pages ~4 days a week. Whether I’m processing a challenging conversation or penning a gratitude or grocery list, they make me a better person. I am more generous in spirit, less prone to self-destructive tendencies. The pages cultivate a sense of agency and focus. I can envision, strategize, AND execute on mid-sized creative projects! This is a revelation.
Best of all, Cameron insists that the Pages work for everyone – blue collar, white collar – not just “creative types.” And from my experience, they work best when done in a group. Watching others actualize is contagious. It expands one’s sense of possibility/indignancy: Humph! if Lily can pick up the ukulele like that, maybe I can run that 5K…
So, on Monday nights from January 13 - April 7, join us at Sneha where we’ll tackle a chapter of the Artist’s Way workbook each week. And if Mondays are prohibitive, fear not, as we’ll publish an exercise in our newsletter each Friday.
Together, we’ll embrace this keystone habit and, maybe just maybe, gain the wherewithal to follow through on our other resolutions as well.
